Looking at this draw and the one in St Polten it is clear the week before Roland Garros can only accomodate one tournament. Clearly not enough of the top players want to play a tournament the week before RG and many of those that do seem to opt for the WTC. Most years produce 4 to 6 challengers with stronger draws than these two tournaments have been able to muster. Of course it's not the tournaments fault; more a result of the condensing the clay season this year by one week.

On a positive note, it is wonderful to see Younes back in a draw for the 1st time since the Australian Open. I hope he is fully fit. Im also hoping Pescosolido can beat Saulnier in the 1st round. It would be Stefano's first main draw ATP victory in almost five years. Saulnier is not at his best on clay so one would have to think Stefano is in with a 40/60 or so chance.

Frooty_Bazooty

05-15-2004, 10:52 AM

apart from Hrbaty and El Aynaoui(and even then both of them probably wont play very well), thats an extremely weak field

Experimentee

05-15-2004, 02:49 PM

Very weak field indeed :eek:
It looked strong on the commitments, but i guess many of those withdrew.

Good luck:

Dominik Hrbaty - should win this, but in his current form, probably wont :rolleyes:
Younes El Aynaoui - great to see him back! I hope hes fully healthy and makes the final at least!

Very sad Younes isnt playing. Sad for Younes who I hope is better soon but also sad for the tournament losing its one major draw. Without Younes, this really does look like a challenger draw and not an especially strong one at that. I hope the tournament can survive into the future despite the present circumstances. Africa has very few tournaments. :sad: